Fire at Calcutta Medical College: 250 patients evacuated

A fire broke out at Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on Wednesday morning. Ten fire tenders have been rushed to the spot to douse the fire. No casualty has been reported as of now and at least 250 people have been evacuated and are being moved to different blocks. Calcutta Medical College, on College Street, has several buildings in the complex. According to preliminary reports, the fire broke out at the Department of Pharmacy early this morning.

There was chaos and panic after the fire broke out. A senior fire official said the fire has been brought under control. Local media footage showed few of the patients being taken out of the building with their saline drips. Few of them could also be seen lying on the floor waiting for help. Some of the patients were moved out of the hospital in ambulances and taken to other state-run hospitals. A disaster management team of the Kolkata Police, fire officials and senior officials are on the spot.

The Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, commonly referred to as Calcutta Medical College, was established in 1835 and is the second oldest medical college in India after Ecole de Medicine of Puducherry. In December 2011, 92 people were killed in a fire at the AMRI hospital in Kolkata. The pre-dawn blaze in the hospital in south Kolkata’s Dhakuria choked to death mostly critically ill patients -many of them in their sleep – and two nurses.